


Rk. Name (Date)

by sky_reid



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, Army, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Gen, Guilt, M/M, Regret, Soldiers, Uniforms, also mostly implied, fuck man idk, hot dads, i will use that tag until it is made official, the one where tink writes the entire story in brackets, thinky thoughts, well implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-22
Updated: 2014-01-22
Packaged: 2018-01-09 14:24:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1147038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_reid/pseuds/sky_reid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wonders what it would be like to have the opportunity to see Chuck wearing his own marshal's suit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rk. Name (Date)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [booksnchocolate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksnchocolate/gifts).



> look i wrote u a thing sarah <33333
> 
> okay so i was watching an interview with max and i noticed that herc's jacket says _lt. h. hansen_ and then stuff sort of (d)evolved from there, idk where i was going with it
> 
> the title is basically what one would write in an obituary or a grave stone (lt. hercules hansen (01/25/25) for example)
> 
> for the record, i know next to nothing about the army so i'm basically winging it all. except the ranks. i'm like, 60% sure about those lmao

 

_Rk. Name (Date)_

 

When Herc first joins the PPDC he's already a soldier. (He enlists young, eldest son of a military father he's trying to impress. Discipline and routine and physical challenges come easy to him; obedience he struggles with, but eventually learns. There's no going back after that, once he's a true soldier, it becomes ingrained in him.) In his closet hangs a spare cargo uniform with his rank and name stitched on the right side of the chest and rarely used dress blues covered in plastic wrap for protection. (He's deployed for six months when Chuck is four; he comes back to Angela washing his uniform because Chuck rifled through his closet one night and took to falling asleep wrapped in the pocketed cargo jacket Herc hasn't worn in years. He's deployed again a year later, when Chuck is just learning how to write. When he comes back, the printed _H._ on the uniform has been replaced with a scribbled _CUHCK_. He doesn't wash the crayon. Years later he's grabbing clothes in a hurry and he notices that his uniform now says _CHuck_ , letters still shaky and uncertain, but the spelling now correct. He wonders how long he's already been missing it for.)

 

He's a private, then a corporal, a sergeant, a lieutenant. (He's a soldier more, better; he's a father less, worse.) Then the world falls apart around him and his life falls apart with it. (The only thing he manages to save is Chuck. Herc never questions his decision, never regrets his choice, but he does wonder how much he's really _saved_ Chuck and if he was maybe already too late to do it altogether.) It makes sense, then, to start over. (Chuck is only a child still, he has nothing to start over, he doesn't understand and Herc doesn't blame him. It's just another thing that they don't have in common. Another step to take them further apart.)

 

He becomes a trainee first, then a ranger, a sergeant, a lieutenant (marshal). He doesn't wear a uniform this time around, at least not one he doesn't choose himself. (He wears simple, practical things, henleys and vests and boots, muted and neutral colours. He tells himself it's a remnant from his military days, that it's because he doesn't know how to dress differently not because he doesn't care. Chuck dresses much the same. At first it's out of necessity, later, well, Herc doesn't know. He likes to think Chuck wants to be more like him, but he knows how (un)likely that is.) He has a jacket, an ill fitting brown thing he only wears in the very beginning. _H. Hansen_ is printed on it when it's first given to him. (It would've said _Hercules Hansen_ , the way Scott's states his full name, if Herc hadn't insisted on only having an initial. No one ever calls him Hercules anymore, he doesn't even introduce himself like that now (Stacker occasionally does; Herc thinks it might be because Stacker feels like having someone named after an ancient god on their side raises the people's morale) and Chuck would probably never let him live it down if he started walking around with _Hercules_ stamped on his chest.)

 

It soon becomes _Sgt. H. Hansen_. (Around the same time Chuck gets his own jacket. It says _Charles Hansen_ because no one takes Chuck seriously enough to listen to him. Well, maybe also because Herc makes sure of it. Chuck throws a fit and Herc finds it pretty hilarious until Chuck threatens, half-jokingly, to take Herc's jacket and just correct his name with a _crayola_ the way he did when he was a child. A wave of nostalgia washes over Herc, for a time when things were simple and all he had to worry about was how he would handle Chuck's rebellious teenage phase. As it is, that phase includes Chuck strapping into a 40-foot metal giant and risking his life fighting a war Herc is not sure can be won.)

 

Then he gets a new one, _Lt. H. Hansen_. (It doesn't really matter to him what it says either way. He doesn't care about moving up the ranks, he's never wanted to be in command, it seems like too much work for too little reward. It's not that he thinks he couldn't do it, it's just that he'd rather avoid the politics that come with it. He doesn't have the patience or self-control to do what he sees Stacker do every day. Stacker thinks he could do it. Stacker thinks he would be _good_ at it. He says so at the oddest times, tells Herc that he's the next in line to lead the jaeger project if anything were to happen to him, like he's feeding Herc his last will at times when he knows Herc isn't in a position to refuse him. So Herc doesn't. Privately, he still hopes it never comes to a point when he has to try to replace Stacker because he knows he can't do it. But he wears his new jacket and answers when people call him _lieutenant_ and watches people obey his orders. Chuck starts wearing his old jacket. Herc's not sure how he feels about that.)

 

He wears a suit now. (He takes conference calls. He responds to _marshal_. He works because his life might have ended but the world keeps turning.) He wakes up to Max slobbering all over him. (The first thing he does is look at the other bed in his room, hoping that somehow Chuck will be there.) He sits at his desk. (He sits at _Stacker's_ desk and stares at Chuck's signature on his PPDC contract and wonders how different things would be if Chuck hadn't felt the need to put his name on everything he saw.) He walks the hallways with the certainty and confidence a leader should have and he has to fake. (He keeps expecting to run into Chuck or Stacker when he turns the next corner). He goes to sleep hoping he doesn't wake up. (It's his turn now to sleep in somebody else's clothes. He wears Chuck's old shirts or his old jacket and imagines he can still smell Chuck on them.)

 

But he does wake up. And the world moves on. (Herc never does though.)


End file.
